The Puffer Forum

my nitrite has risen. before i added dumpy it was 0.00. the aquarium was a freshwater for over a year before. i started adding marine salt and everything was fine (i know you cant add too much other wise it kills off the benificial bacteria) yet i checked it lastnight and today and its sitting at .25...im sure its been from the salt because i vacuum the gravel soon as hes done eating. i do water changes about 50% twice a week. sometimes more.
ammonia is at 0
nitrate is under 10

do i have to re cycle the tank or just add some more bacteria to the filter? i have a aquaclear filter

I would just do a water change. If the puffer was recently added to the tank then its probably just the tank adjusting to the added bio-load along with some die-off due to the salt. If the ammonia is reading 0 then it sounds like you probably didn't kill off all the biological filtration. You might want to increase the salinity a little slower from now on (assuming you're not at the target salinity yet).

If ammonia is zero, you do not have to re-cycle the tank. Higher nitrites and some nitrates means Your tank is just going through a mini-cycle, nothing to worry about if you keep up with changes. Just keep a close eye on Dumpy, water change at any sign of distress.

thanks so much!
i checked the nitrite just now again and its reading 0 so im just assuming that it was a mini cycle like you guys said. dumpy seems real happy and is buzzing around. i will check the nitrate + ammonia after too

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ammonia 0
nitrate 5

so its good

i fed him 2 days ago an his belly is still round...silly piggy

Glad its all sorted, definately a mini cycle